Monday, July 13, 2015

When your phone looks like this for the next 2 weeks or so, you know you have finally made it to summer in Nashville.

This is a call for shade! Lately, I have been noticing a string of sidewalks going in without proper plans for shade coverage. At this time, I am not sure why this would be. Is it our problem with overhead power lines making tree planting a future problem? Or, is it just poor planning and lack of committment to the Strategic Sidewalk Plan? Is it a cost issue? I think these are all questions that need to be addressed.

According to the Strategic Sidewalk Plan, sidewalks are ideally supposed to have a shade covered green buffer.

Examples of sidewalks going in WITHOUT SHADE COVERAGE.

When you go to walk and you have beads

of sweat the moment you walk out the door, it is truly hot. Probably, too hot for many people and a significant deterrent to walkability.

Shade could rectify this issue. After doing a little research on the subject of heat islands and differences that shade can make, it sounds like the most dramatic result is often in areas that typically contain token bits of shade such as parking lots. In one study, put on by children in a 4-H club, they found a temperature difference of 35 degrees in a parking lot. They sampled a variety of surfaces - lawns, sidewalks, parking lots - and found the average difference was 27.5 degrees!

With shade coverage, temperatures shown below would feel more like mid-70s which is a very doable temperature for all to walk comfortably.

Shade Parade is for SHADE covered, well designed sidewalks in Nashville.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

The part, at the end, that describes a quick 1.5 walk over 3 hours exemplifies one of the issues we have here in Nashville & that I hope the next mayor will correct.

You can walk, in select neighborhoods, for short stretches. It is the longer walk, the kind that would walk off a crab-cake corn dog, with a sensible, well connected sidewalk grid that we are sorely missing.

Nashville is famous for its country music. But its food scene is hopping, too. The companyWalk Eat Nashville offers tours of the city, with a new expansion exploring the restaurants and artisan food shops in the Midtown/Vanderbilt area, near Music Row, of Nashville. The neighborhood is known as the place where the city’s culinary roots took hold, and includes upscale dining and down-home cooking, said Karen-Lee Ryan, the Walk Eat Nashville founder. Tastings at each location include discussions with chefs, owners and managers. “I want people to connect to the food and the people who make it possible,” she said.

Don’t expect to walk away the calories, though: At only 1.5 miles over the course of three hours, the six-restaurant Saturday ramble ($49) is more lunch-on-the-go than an excuse for exercise. In between bites, tour guides will offer a diet of locals-only knowledge of the surrounding neighborhoods and landmarks.